As you know, from my previous posts, working time in MS PROJECT 2010 is set up in a Backstage view:

and it says: When you put task duration in the Duration field in DAYS it will multiple days with 8 hours per day. The task will start at 08:00 and will finish at 16:00.When you put task duration in the Duration field in WEEKS it will multiple weeks with 40 hours per week. Finally, when you put task duration in the Duration field in MONTHS it will multiple months with 20 days per month and with 8 hours per day.

Defaults for MS PROJECTS 2010 are:

Weeks starts on: Monday

Fiscal year starts in: January

Default start time: 08:00

Default end time: 17:00

Hours per day: 8

Hours per week: 40

Days per month: 20

It means that 1 day of duration is work from 08:00 till 17:00 with 1 hour of lunch break

You know that if you want from MS PROJECT 2010 to calculate start and end date you have to be in auto scheduled mode.

in MS PROJECT 2010 there are three types of Calendars: Project Calendar, Resource Calendar and Task Calendar.

I will explain when, how, and why to use those types of calendars. I will be very detailed. I do not know if will take me 2, 3 or 5 posts to explain everything about Calendars in MS PROJECT 2010, but I do not care. I will write, and write, and write until I will not cover EVERYTHING about the Calendars. WHY? Take me seriously in this: “IF YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND HOW TO WORK WITH CALENDARS IN MS PROJECT, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO GET THE EXPECTED RESULTS, AND YOU WILL HATE THE MS PROJECT 2010, BECAUSE YOU WILL THINK THAT IT DOES NOT WORK PROPERLY!”

There are three “built in” Calendars in MS PROJECT 2010: Standard, Night Shift and 24 hours. You can see them here:

For the Project, Resources and all Tasks, Standard Calendar is Default.

Default working time for the Standard Calendar is from Monday to Friday, and from 08:00 to 12:00, and From 13:00 to 17:00. You can see it here:

Default working time for the Nigh Shift Calendar is from Monday to Friday, and from 23:00 to 03:00, and From 04:00 to 08:00.

Default working time for the 24 Hours Calendar is from Monday to Sunday (the whole week) , and from 00:00 to 00:00.

You can create your own Calendar or change one of the Default Calendars.

OK. Now back to our “Wedding Project”. We do not want to work on Christmas, and New Year. So we have to change our Calendar:

after you will click on the Details button you will get:

I told that Christmas is so called “Recurring” exception, and that it is Nonworking day and that it recur every Year. I put 20 in the number of occurrences, so I do not have to be worried for next 20 years about Christmas, and my “Wedding” Project will be finished much, much earlier than 20 years from now (I hope )

I will do the same thing for the New Year!

If you remember, my Project is about to start at 01.08.2011. Since I want to take a control over every task, I must be available for my Project all the time. No, suppose that I am going on vacation from 15.09.2011 to 21.08.2011. I will make this as a “one time” exception, because I do not want any activity while I’m on my vacation.

What do I get? Well, there will be no activity during this period! I will give you example. I will add a brand-new task in my “Wedding” Project in auto schedule mode, and I will tell that it will have 12 days duration and I will get:

As you can see, the Start date is 01.08.2011 (The Project Start date). The Finish date is 23.08.2011. Why? From 01.08.2011 (Monday) to 05.08.2011 (Friday) we have 5 working days. From 08.08.2011 (Monday) to 12.08.2011 (Friday) we have 5 working days, as well. From 15.08 (Monday) to 21.08.2011 we have no activity, because in my Project Calendar I made an exception (Vacation)! And I need another 2 day to complete my Task. So the activity on that task will continue at 22.08.2011 (Monday) and finish at 23.08.2011 (Tuesday), e.g. 2 days.

You can make this Vacation exception with using Work weeks:

Now if you add the same EXAMPLE TASK with 12 days duration you will get the same Result!

Because this is an EXAMPLE TASK I will delete it!

That’s all for now. I will continue in my next post.

Until then,

Best Regards!

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About Nenad Trajkovski

Location: Zagreb, Croatia
Occupation: Project Manager
Interests: Project Management and MS PROJECT
He was born in Zagreb, Croatia at 1963. After completing his college he started working on projects in different business areas (banking, manufacturing, automotive industry, distribution, oil companies, etc.) developing and implementing ERP systems into different companies. He has got a lot of experience working with people in different business processes and also possesses great knowledge in information technologies and financial services. Today he works as a business consultant, adn Project Manager in PERPETUUM MOBILE d.o.o. Zagreb. He is a regular lecturer for Project Management in MS Innovation Center in Varaždin, Logosoft Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina and SEAVUS GROUP in Skopje Macedonia. He was named the best lecturer of WINDAYS 2008 while his lecture was also voted as the best. In addition, he was in TOP 10 lecturers at the MS SINERGY 2009 and MS VISIA 2009, 2010. Shares first place as the best lecturer of KulenDays 2009 and 2010 and PMI Conference 2009 in Zagreb. He is also a regular lecturer in the MS Community. He is a Certified Accountant and a PMP (Project Manager Professional) and a PMI-RMP (Risk Manager Professional), MCP, MCT, and Microsoft Certified Technical Specialist - Microsoft Project 2010. From 01.01.2012 awarded with MVP (Microsoft Most Valuable Proffesional - Microsoft Project)!